The Light of the Holy Qur'an — Page 148
T HE L IGHT OF T HE HOLY Q U R’AN—NUM BE R T WO T HE L IGHT OF T HE HOLY Q U R’AN—NUM BE R T WO 148 َ ْنَب َ وَهِي ی َ امْرَأَتَه ُ ز ی َ م َ رَأَى ٰ امْرَأَة ً فَأَت َّ ْه ِ وَسَل ی هللا ُ عَلَ َّی رَسُوْل َ هللا ِ صَل َّ عَن ْ جَابِر ٍ أَن 1 حَاجَتَهُ. ی تَمْعَس ُ مَنِيْئَة ً لَهَا فَقَضٰ Saudah ra is not mentioned in this hadith anywhere. What this hadith does say is that the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, saw some lady. He then came to his wife Zainab ra , Allah be pleased with her, who was tanning a hide. Then he qa da ha jatah u [fulfilled his desire]. Note that there is absolutely no mention in this hadith any- where that the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, was attracted to the beauty and charm of that other lady. There isn’t even any mention whether that woman was young or old. Nor is it proved that the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, came and went to bed with his wife. The words of the hadith only say that he fulfilled his want with her. The phrase qa da ha jatah u is not exclusive for intimacy in the Arabic lexicon. Answering the call of nature is also called qa da -e- ha jat , and it is used with many other meanings. So, from whence came the knowledge that the Holy Prophet s as , went to bed with his wife? It is clearly mischief to restrict a general phrase to a spe- cific meaning. Besides, it does not state that the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said that he went and had intimate relations with his wife upon seeing some woman. The fact is that there is a hadith in Muslim related by Jabir which is translated as follows: If one of you sees some woman whom he 1. S a hih Muslim Kit a bun - Nik ah, B a bu Nadbe man ra’ a Imra’atan, fa waqa‘at f i nafsih i , ’il a an ya’ti Imra’atahu au J a riyatahu fa yuw a qi‘ah a , Hadith 3407 [Publisher]